Conditional tense

Formation

As with the future tense, the forms of
the conditional tense in Spanish hold few surprises. The endings
are all regular, and there are only a few verbs that have irregular
stems in the conditional. The endings (-ía,-ías, -ía, -íamos,-íaias, -ían) are added to the
infinitive form of the verb or, in the case of the few irregular verbs, to the future stem.

Examples:

-ar verbs

hablaría

hablarías

hablaría

hablaríamos

hablaríais

hablarían

-er verbs

comería

comerías

comería

comeríamos

comeríais

comerían

-ir verbs

viviría

vivirías

viviría

viviríamos

viviríais

vivirían

While most
conditional tense occurrences are regular, there are a few
irregular conditional and future stems, and they should be
committed to memory. Notice how regular most of them are in their
irregularity. They are:

Verb / Irregular stem / Forms

decir / dir- / diría, dirías,
diría, etc.

haber / habr- / habría, habrías,
habría, etc.

hacer / har- / haría, harías,
haría, etc.

poder / podr- / podría, podrías,
podría, etc.

poner / pondr- / pondría,
pondrías, pondría, etc.

querer / querr- / querría,
querrías, querría, etc.

saber / sabr- / sabría, sabrías,
sabría, etc.

salir / saldr- / saldría,
saldrías, saldría, etc.

tener / tendr- / tendría,
tendrías, tendría, etc.

venir / vendr- / vendría,
vendrías, vendría, etc.

Use

Primary use of
the conditional tense

In its most basic sense, the conditional tense is a cousin to
the future tense, not only in its forms but also in its meaning.
Instead of translating the English will, however, it
translates the words would or sometimes should. For
example:

Comería arroz pero no hay más.(I would eat rice, but there is none left.)

Saldríamos para México mañana
pero nos falta dinero.(We would leave for Mexico tomorrow,
but we don't have the money.)

Nos dijo que se pondría una corbata.
(He told us that he would wear a tie.)

Conditional
vs. imperfect tense

If a speaker says "would" in English to mean "used to," the
conditional tense is not used. Instead, the imperfect indicative is
used. For instance, When I was ten years old I would (used to)
play after school, They would (used to) go to Europe on
vacation.

Iba a la playa todos los veranos.(I would go
to the beach each summer.)